Awhile back, I found a hardcover picture book at Goodwill--my new favorite place to buy books--with a waif-like dog on the front cover. I try like anything to avoid books with sad-looking animals on the covers, but this one turned out to be written by Anton Chekhov. And since I'm obsessed with anything Russian and Gennady Spirin's illustrations tugged at my heartstrings, I flipped through the pages to make sure nothing bad happened to the dog before I decided to buy the book.Anyway, this tale is called Kashtanka. It's the story of a dog who loses track of her master, a cabinetmaker, starts to fall asleep in the snow, and is rescued by a fat stranger who also has a goose, a pig, and a cat. It turns out that he trains animals for the circus, where he works as a clown. He trains Kashtanka to join the act, but on her first night, she hears her name from high in the stands. The cabinetmaker and his son have come to the circus and immediately recognize her. The crowd helps a jubilant Kashtanka reach her family, and she goes home with them, happy and already forgetting the disruption in her life.
It's a sweet and whimsical tale. When I checked on Amazon for the link just now, I discovered that this edition--published in 1995--is apparently out of print. Ergo, I've used the cover of the French version just to show the illustration that made me take notice of the book. And now that I know it's out of print, I'm even more glad to have snagged a copy.
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